


the monster under my bed, the demon in your head

by A_Butter_Churner



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Badass Éponine, Dysfunctional Family, F/M, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Grantaire & Éponine Thénardier Friendship, M/M, Past Montparnasse/Éponine Thénardier, Platonic Relationships, Sibling Bonding, gavroche-centric
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-09-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:21:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26183359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Butter_Churner/pseuds/A_Butter_Churner
Summary: She’s on the phone, Gavroche realizes as he nears his sister’s room. Against his better judgement (‘we’re Thenardiers, we have no better judgement!’ – Eponine, ever so often) he pressed his ear to the door to hear a hoarse voice broken with heaving sobs.Gavroche hurries back down as ‘Ponine hangs up the phone and lets Azelma know that she’s coming. The gears start turning in his head though…
Relationships: Cosette Fauchelevent/Marius Pontmercy, Enjolras/Grantaire (Les Misérables), Gavroche Thénardier/Original Male Character(s), Minor or Background Relationship(s), Montparnasse & Gavroche Thénardier, Montparnasse/Éponine Thénardier- past, Éponine Thénardier & Gavroche Thénardier
Comments: 3
Kudos: 19





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi!! I got inspired recently so... here's the next big project I guess...
> 
> It's more family oriented because platonic relationships are so fun :) 
> 
> This is a story I've wanted to write for a long time so I really hope you enjoy it! Toss me a kudos and a comment, will ya?

Gavroche walks in to see Azelma propped up on the couch in a baggy red hoodie, one he knows used to belong to Eponine, with a book and her ratty old earbuds in. She looks up as the door creaks open and smiles at him with a little wave before pressing a finger to her lips and gesturing to the kitchen where Gavroche notices his oldest sister is pacing. Eponine’s on the phone and frowning with her head in her hands.

“What’s ‘Ponine doing?” Gav slides next to his sister on the pull-out couch.

Azelma bites her lip before responding. “She’s on the phone with one of her managers.” Azelma flips another page, frowning.

Gavroche nods. He knows that his sister has to work more than one job to support the three of them, which is why he _said_ that he really didn’t need to stay in the apartment. The Elephant Statue in the square was more than comfortable, he’d told her, he’d be fine. But ‘Ponine was having none of it, putting Gav in a constant state of guilt now. He’d never slept well to begin with, so every so often he notices Eponine coming home well into the morning before grabbing a cup of coffee and heading out again. In fact, she was rarely ever home for more than two hours at a time.

He decides to listen in on ‘Ponine’s conversation, eavesdropping did run in the family after all.

“M. Bernard, please.” His sister was saying, her tone pleading. “I haven’t missed a day _once_ since I started working for you, please… what do you mean ‘you don’t like my attitude’?... what?... Well maybe I won’t talk the entire time, would that suit you?... oh, wow, very mature… No, I didn’t mean that! Sir! Please…” she trails off, removing the phone from her ear with a groan.

“What happened?” Gavroche frowns. Eponine started working for Monsieur Bernard only three months ago, he owns some small business, and even then Gavroche knew he was a jerk.

\--

_“I don’t like this guy, ‘Ponine.”_

_“You think I do? I hate all the assholes I work for, but they pay our bills, and I love that.”_

\--

Eponine’s dark eyes flick up to meet his and her face relaxes for a second. “Oh, hey Gav. Weren’t you spending the day at Courf’s?”

Gavroche shrugs. He _really_ didn’t want to explain that he _was_ going to Courfeyrac’s apartment because Courf had invited him to play Monopoly with him, Enj, and ‘Ferre, and then they brought out the drinks and Enjolras had excused himself, and the sexual tension in the room was too much to take, so he left.

“What did M. Bernard say?” Gavroche youth asks once again, cocking his head to the side.

Eponine rolls her eyes with her usual amount of ‘IDGAF’, but Gavroche can tell it’s half-hearted. “Nothing you need to worry about, baby boy.” She walks over to him and musses his hair. He smiles despite himself. The two of them have never been ‘proper siblings’. Azelma is the most normal out of all three of them.

“You sure?” Gavroche stands up. Azelma sends him a glare, he’s not quite sure what it means.

Eponine narrows her eyes. “Yes I’m fucking sure, why all the questions? Is this a fucking police station or my apartment?”

Azelma whistles lowly but Gavroche can still hear it. _Shut up,_ he wants to tell her.

Eponine sighs. “I’m meeting Cosette and ‘Chetta for lunch, so you’re going to R’s for the afternoon.”

\--

“What’s taking her so long?” Azelma taps her foot impatiently as they wait for Eponine to come and drive them to Grantaire’s apartment. “Can you go check on her?”

Gavroche nods and scurries towards Eponine’s room. Azelma is still miffed that their older sister gets her own room while Gav and her have to share.

_She’s on the phone,_ Gavroche realizes as he nears his sister’s room. Against his better judgement (‘we’re Thenardiers, we have no better judgement!’ – Eponine, ever so often) he pressed his ear to the door to hear a hoarse voice broken with heaving sobs.

“I really can’t keep doing this, R. Gav and ‘Zelma deserve so much more… no, I’m not going to tell them… yeah I know they’re smart kids, but Azelma is so wrapped up in her reading she’ll barely notice and Gav… ‘Chetta says she knows someone who’s hiring so I’ll check that out… yeah… yeah, I know… and you’re _sure_ that the kids can stay with you for the afternoon?... you are the _best_ … no, I did not make a pun… I didn’t!... alright, they’re probably looking for me now, I’ll see you soon.”

Gavroche hurries back down as ‘Ponine hangs up the phone and lets Azelma know that she’s coming. The gears start turning in his head though…

\--

Gavroche is sitting next to Azelma on Grantaire’s couch with microwaved ramen in his hand. He’s leaning into his sister a little bit and she has a hand on his knee: their secret signal saying ‘I got you’. Grantaire and Enjolras are sitting a little further away, Enjolras’s head on his boyfriend’s shoulder.

Gavroche notices Grantaire sneaking guilty glances at him and Azelma and nudges his sister, who frowns as she notices too.

“Why’s he looking at us like that?” Azelma whispers.

Gavroche shrugs. “He was on the phone with ‘Ponine earlier. Think he knows something?”

Azelma rolls her eyes in a way Eponine would be proud of. “Seriously, Gav? More conspiracies?”

Gavroche frowns, offended. “Hey R?” he asks, blowing a raspberry to his sister.

Grantaire looks up. “Yeah?”

“Did my sister get fired today?”

“No.” Grantaire spits, far too quickly to be natural.

“Lying bastard.” Enjolras murmurs, pressing a small kiss to his boyfriend’s neck. Gavroche grins and glances at his sister whose brow is furrowed and jaw practically on the floor.

“Eponine got _fired?_ Wait, how did Gav know?” Azelma asks, voice growing louder by the minute.

Grantaire winces. “I told her you’d figure it out at some point. She didn’t want you guys to worry, Musichetta is hooking her up with some dude she knows who’s hiring right now, anyway.”

“But that’s not a guarantee.” Enjolras mumbles sleepily as Grantaire glares.

“Not helping. Like, at all.”

Enjolras removes his head from the crook of R’s neck and locks eyes with Gavroche and his sister. “Look, Eponine works herself to death because she loves you two. I’m sure you already know that. And R’s known her for longer than I have but even I know that if you try to tell her to stop doing something she’ll flip you off and probably knock your teeth out.”

Chuckles pass around the room, they all know it’s true.

“Yeah,” Grantaire smiles fondly. “You can’t really do anything about it, so I suggest not to worry too much. Also, don’t tell Ep I told you, she’d hunt me down and skin me, then try to learn taxidermy just to stuff me and mount me on her wall.”

Azelma giggles at that while Gavroche stares thoughtfully.

What if he _could_ do something about it?

\--

“I have an idea.” Gavroche proclaims as Enj and R drive him and Azelma back home.

“Yeah?” Grantaire glances at him in the mirror.

“What if me and ‘Zelma got jobs? We could save up a lot of money and surprise ‘Ponine!”

Azelma cocks her head to the side. “Neither of us are legal adults. That’s child labor.”

Gavroche ponders this for a second. “What if we did jobs for you guys, R?”

Grantaire furrows his brow. “You wanna do jobs for all of your sisters friends? I dunno…”

“Yeah, Gav.” Azelma frowns. “You know ‘Ponine hates charity.”

“It isn’t _charity_ though. I’ll be actually working for pay.” Gavroche persists. “It’s like a regular job, except I don’t have to worry about legal crap _and_ there’s no competition!”

Azelma shakes her head. “I still think it’s a bad idea.”

But Gavroche couldn’t be swayed now. This is how he’s going to earn his place at the table. _This_ is how he is going to help his sister.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yayyy chapter two! I'm a sucker for Marisette okay, so I apologize in advance because there is a real severe lack of sweet, wholesome Marisette and their dynamic was too cute to pass up!
> 
> I really hope you like it. Toss me a kudos or a comment, will ya?

“Alright Cosette!” Gavroche calls, jumping down from the ladder after screwing the lightbulb in one last time. “It should be working now.”

The woman in question practically sashays into the room and flips on the light switch. With nothing but a few sputters, the bulb flickers to life, a yellow sheen coating it. Cosette grins at the light before switching the light back off and scooping Gavroche in a hug.

“Thank you so much!” she presses a kiss to the top of his head causing Gavroche’s cheeks to heat up, reminding him of the childish crush he used to have on her. Now, she was just like another big sister (although he didn’t need any more of those). “That thing has been giving Papa trouble for who knows how long, and just between you and me, he’s not quite as agile as he used to be.” Cosette’s laugh is like a peal of bells then and draws smile on Gavroche’s own face.

“No problem. I’ve been fixing lightbulbs since before I finished teething!” he jokes.

Cosette chuckles and hands him a wad of cash from the pockets of her denim shorts. “For your service, Monsieur.” She winks and he laughs, taking the money and stashing it in the shoebox he stored his profits in. “You will be staying for lunch, right?” Cosette asks before Gavroche can put his shoes on and leave.

Gavriche shuffles. “Um, I wasn’t planning to.”

Cosette simply shakes her head. “Marius should be home soon and Papa has been in the kitchen all day!”

“Thanks for the invitation, ‘Sette. But ‘Zelma said I had to be home by 3:00.” Gavroche turns to go before he’s being practically dragged to the kitchen and sat down in a chair.

Cosette drops a placemat and a bowl of what looks like soup in front of Gavroche and puts her hands on her hips. “You’re not going _anywhere_ until you finish that.”

“Fine, _mom._ ” Gavroche sticks his tongue out at her. At this, Cosette softens and wraps her arms around him.

“I just want you to be healthy.” She shushes him before he can respond. “I know that you guys can’t always afford a proper meal, so…” she shrugs, smiling slightly.

Gavroche just stuns speechless at this. “Thanks, ‘Sette.”

Cosette simply presses another sweet kiss onto his forehead and instructs him to keep eating his soup before packing some up for Azelma.

Suddenly, the phone rings, the sound splitting the air. Cosette and M. Valjean are the only people Gavroche knows apart from his family that have a landline. Azelma noticed this a long time ago and likes to think about it. She said it made her feel less poor. Of course those weren’t her exact words, but Gavroche knew what she meant.

Cosette raises the phone to her ear and immediately an affectionate grin rises to her face, which could mean only three things: Marius, M. Valjean, or both of them.

“Hi sweetie!”

So… Marius, then.

Gavroche keeps at his soup while also listening in to the conversation being had.

“Yeah, lunch is ready. Did you remember to pick up baking powder?... No?... Marius, I told you to bring the list with you before you went to Costco!... Well then how did you forget baking powder? It’s the one thing I circled in bright. Red. Sharpie… Wait… is that Courf in the background? Marius? What’re you… no, don’t hang up!”

Cosette sighs and puts the phone down exasperatedly, but when she turns to face Gavroche she has a fond smile on her face. “Sometimes I really wonder about him, you know?”

Gavroche just shrugs. Cosette and Marius have one of the sweetest relationships he’s ever seen. Actually, probably _the_ sweetest. Eponine had a boyfriend once, but they broke up a long time ago and no one knows why. Gavroche never even met him. And since Azelma thinks romance is only sweet in books, he doesn’t really look forward to dating anybody. But it might be nice to have someone look at him like Marius looks at Cosette.

As if on cue the door bursts open and Courfeyrac practically bounds into the house, Marius trailing behind with an awkward quirk of his lips and about six grocery bags in his hands.

“We have arrived!” Courfeyrac announces before running up to Cosette who kisses his cheek in greeting. She then walks over to Marius and plants a quick peck on his lips before taking some of the bags. Gavroche giggles a bit as he sees Marius’s cheeks flush pink.

“Hi, Courf.” She smiles. “Are you staying for lunch as well?”

Courfeyrac cocks his head to the side as if thinking. “Sure, why not? ‘Ferre is helping Enjolras with some rally planning so I’m pretty much free.” He turns around and beams when his gaze lands on Gavroche. “Gav, hi!”

Gavroche just waves, smiling too. Courf and Grantaire are basically his big brothers. He attends all of Les Amis’ meetings usually perched on a table next to them or even on their shoulders. Well, not Courf’s shoulders. That happened once and caused a _lot_ of accidents… Joly wouldn’t speak to them for a week.

“What’re you doing here?” Courf slides into the chair next to Gavroche, almost falling over.

“I was helping ‘Sette with the lightbulb in M. Valjean’s bedroom.” Gavroche shrugs. “Then she made me stay for lunch.”

_“Made_ you?” Courf raises an eyebrow.

Gavroche nods with mock solemnity. “Yep. She won’t let me leave until I finish.”

The other man gasps exaggeratedly. “What a monster!”

Cosette comes over with a bowl of soup and places it in front of Courfeyrac, rolling her eyes affectionately. “Haha, very funny boys.”

“I’m just kidding, ‘Sette. You know I love ya.”

Cosette just smiles in response, taking Marius’s hand in her own and says, “I’m going to show him the lightbulb. Gav, make sure Courf doesn’t do anything stupid!”

Gavroche just laughs as Courfeyrac pretends to pout. The older man then smiles and says, “So was fixing the lightbulb part of your little plan for ‘Ponine?”

Gavroche furrows his brow. “How do you know about that?”

Courf chuckles. “‘Ferre was completely _raving_ about how you reorganized his library! He was like, ‘That Gavroche is so precocious, in _genious!’_ And a whole bunch of other words I don’t understand.”

Gavroche laughs. “Glad he liked it.”

“So how much money have you made?”

Gavroche brings out the shoebox and says, “I just added Cosette’s, so it should be about $70 right now. But I have to count it when I get home.”

Courfeyrac whistles lowly. “That’s pretty cool, dude.”

Gavroche grins, glancing at the shoebox. It was, wasn’t it?

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi on tumblr! @the-butter-churner


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